Joel Osteen on Larry King: Does Osteen have a clear position on anything?

Unfortunately I don’t have time today to address these videos adequately, so I give them to you–have at it in the comment meta! In short I will say that I am not sure Osteen has a clue about sin, the problem of evil, or what it truly means to put your faith in Jesus Christ.

Sometime this weekend I will try to address these videos critically but to say the least, it is disturbing that the Osteens are the pastors of the largest church in the United States and they seem to be so confused on the gospel.

To say the least, I am greatly bothered by these videos, but for the sake of not losing my cool, here are a couple of amusing quotes:

I think what has made Osteen successful is his always positive demeanor–he never gets upset at anyone or anything, but I think that is perhaps the most offensive quality about him–because thinking Americans can see through that and it comes off fake.

Having attended Osteen’s church for a few years, I can tell you that mature Christians will move past his consistent and oft-repeated message of hope in a pretty short time. However, you shouldn’t slam him down too hard because he is “light” on Bible thumping in these public forums.

He serves a mostly inner-city community that desparately needs a message of hope. In his home church services, he focuses on God being bigger than your problems and focusing on Him, rather than letting the enemy pull you down. He ends every service with a call to repent your sins and accept Jesus as the Lord of your life. He encourages all who answer the altar call to get into a good, Bible-based church and stop hanging around with people that will take them away from God.

God can use a less-theology-schooled pastor like Joel to bring people to church and to a place where a more-theology-schooled pastor can have a bigger impact on their eternal life. Paul says to the Corinthians that he addresses them as infants in what he teaches them, feeding them milk instead of solid food, because they aren’t yet ready for solid food.

I appreciate your sharing your experience at Lakewood. For the record, I have never called Osteen a false prophet.

I am sure that the Osteens’ ministry has had several positive effects on the people of the Houston area. I must say that what bothers me about his ministry–I have watched several Joel Osteen sermons on TV–is not what he says so much as what he doesn’t say.

He doesn’t talk about sin. He doesn’t talk about God’s vast holiness. He doesn’t talk about the cross very much for that matter. He doesn’t talk very much about repentance. And for the most part he doesn’t talk that much about or use the Bible very much–he admitted to not preaching the Bible very much on Larry King Live!

You don’t have to be a theology-schooled-pastor to preach the Bible. You don’t have to be a theology schooled pastor to articulate the gospel clearly and to speak truthfully about God’s holiness and man’s need for redemption only through the cross of Christ!

He is not just light on “Bible Thumping” in public forums, he is light on it in his preaching. He admitted to being light on it–he said its not his calling!

I am glad that he is encouraging people who “make decisions” in his church to go to Bible-based churches because from what I can see in his “public” ministry his ministry is not firmly bible-based. Given feel good gospel that he preaches, I would be concerned about anyone who “makes a decision” having heard that gospel.

I am not trying to defame Osteen. In both of the Larry King interviews I have seen him in and in his preaching, I have continually felt that he doesn’t represent evangelicals in a light that I am at all comfortable with and his treatment on the gospel is just unclear enough to come close to missing it altogether.

If there is anything that we as evangelicals need to be clear on, it is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ–how sinful man can come into a relationship with the Lord of the universe! When someone who represents evangelicals is unclear on the gospel–it is worth talking about in a clear manner.

That is one thing that I am thankful for Joel Osteen for–he has motivated countless Christians to speak more clearly on the gospel because he is not.

I cannot argue that Osteen does not preach from the Bible. He doesn’t. And, as you’ve noted, he even admits as much.

What I am trying to say is simply this. Joel Osteen has a place, and plays an important role, in the church of Christ. He preaches a “gospel” of peace and prosperity and he does bring people to God. They may not be completely understanding of how Jesus elimnates their separation from God by covering their sins with His precious blood, but they are ready to “do right” and “get right with God” (these are the words Joel uses in his weekly altar call). He is calling people to God and then encouraging them to get into a Bible-based church.

I believe the Lord can use this to soften otherwise hard hearts and make them ready for the message you and I would like to give…..to repent and look at the Cross for their salvation.

But let us not forget how Jesus himself handled the non-believers of Palestine. He preached the peace and love of God and justice for everybody. He preached the failure of those that God left in charge to practice God’s love and justice on their constituents. And typically, His final words to a healed follower were, “Go, and sin no more.”

My problem with Joel Osteen is the vagueness of his interviews.
Most evangelical pastors will take any opportunity to preach the Gospel and ensure that it is put out clearly.

The one part of this interview that really made me upset is when Joel was asked if he prayed every morning and he said he wouldn’t call it prayer, but he justs look for something to be grateful for. So he doesn’t pray for God’s guidance throughout the day and be with him as a “mega” pastor and his interactions with his congregation.
Also when Larry asked what we should be doing during these difficult times earlier in the interview Joel answered that we should look around at what we have to be grateful for, why not tell Larry that we all need to start praying.

This man has no knowledge of the Bible and Christs’ teachings…
Every time I have turned his sermons on, he may mention one verse out of context and not one person in his congregation has their Bible open. I have to stop myself and just pray for his congregation as we enter the “end times” and the age of the lukewarm church is on the rise.

I can’t believe Joel O is saying its going to be all right or get better. God says in the last days this will all happen get use to it & start Preaching the Truth. God Bless.
I am a Chaplain & I am sick of people playing church & pastors preaching what members want to hear. Jesus never did & thats my Example.To Live The Way Of Jesus.

Joel Osteen has a very focused calling. He is very “in tune” with what his mission is and he spends all of his energy serving people in this manner. Based on what he has said in several instances, he himself has had to focus and re-focus his attentions on his specific calling because he does not ever want to be caught “not fulfilling” the direct mission he truly believes God is calling him to. He clearly sees his assignment as being from God, his part is very specific and he completely trusts that if he were mistaken in any way, then God as his Father would love him enough to direct him to such a reality. The best Joel can do is give all of his effort to serve God and serve people in the way he personally feels led by God to fulfill.

For me, I am a very mature christian with a deep vision of many, many things I believe God is calling me to fulfill. Joel’s ministry has fueled and encouraged my faith through the years to follow through with these dreams and given me a holy sense of the great responsibility I have before God to fulfill such dreams.

The greatest evidence I have that Joel is on the right track and his ministry resides from the heart of God is that the fruit of his and Vicroria’s ministry to me personally is that I love the Lord Jesus Christ more than ever, I am more confident of His love for me more than at any time in my life, and beloved…because of Joel and Victoria’s spiritual input in my life for the last several years, I want Jesus to be Lord of absolutely every part of my life and I ardently desire to fulfill every dream, every wish that God has for me. I long to live a holy, consecrated life and I long to know the scriptures in greater depth and I long to be obediant to God in every portion of my life because of their continued and faithful ministry to my life.

By the way, I do not attend their church, I do not live in Texas, but I make sure I do not miss Joel and Victoria on TV. We as christians must learn to appreciate each other’s calling and not spend time putting chrisitians down we don’t understand or agree with. We must have faith that each of us is doing the best we know at the time. Joel and Victoria are our family. They have feelings too. I care about their feelings. I hope that one day I may have their kind of success at overcoming such hurtful criticisms and I trust I will have the faith to keep my eye on the ball as they have. We must remember that God is listening and He may be very unpleased with such negativity. Scripturally, if you believe a brother to be mistaken, you are to love him enough to speak to him personally. If he doesn’t see things your way, then pray for him. Also, be wise enough to pray for yourself. It may be you who are mistaken.

Beloved, quite frankly, I would be fearful to be so aggressive in putting another christian down. I agree with you, God is a holy God, and I would carefully tread on issues I feel so passionately about that may be in opposition to that of one of our brethren. We are required by God to first and foremost walk in love. Any disagreements are to be handled in a very specific way. Please prayerfully consider how you proceed. Remember, we are all trying to serve God the best we know how.

I admit that some of my comments on Osteen have been attacks on him rather than his message–and for that I should repent.

However, let me be crystal clear about what makes me very nervous about so many people looking to Osteen and his ministry for direction. What makes me nervous about people looking to Osteen is that he is unclear on the gospel–and I feel I am being generous and giving him the benefit of the doubt when I describe his preaching as “unclear” on the gospel.

I have watched Osteen preach numerous times. He says many things that are true, helpful, and encouraging–I have no problem with most of the things that he says. I don’t agree with some of his prosperity gospel preaching because I don’t think it is biblical, otherwise Jesus and the 12 disciples must have been living outside the will of God because they were all poor and were all severely persecuted. But the prosperity stuff is not my problem with Osteen’s preaching so much as what he does not say in his preaching. Bottom line is that I have heard Osteen give a “gospel invitation” many times and I have never heard him explain the cross or call sinners to repent before a holy God. That is a big deal because the gospel is a big deal, God is a big deal, and Jesus is the only way to Him–when brothers don’t preach the true gospel or leave important pieces (like the cross!) out of the gospel–they run the risk of losing the gospel altogether. I fear Osteen is on the verge of losing the gospel altogether. That is something to be concerned about.

If I had Osteen’s phone number, I would call him and express these things personally, but I don’t, sorry about that. However, let me ask you this question: while Osteen is out there influencing millions with a message that is less than clear on the gospel, I am just supposed to keep my mouth shut? If I believe that someone is converting thousands of people with a message that falls short of the Biblical gospel, then isn’t it right for me to speak up about it so that those who have been converted will think more seriously about the gospel and conversion?

That is all I am trying to do here. I should be careful not to attack Osteen himself, I apologize to all who have read this post because that is not right for me to do. But I will not apologize for helping people to see that Joel Osteen’s gospel is unclear (if not out and out unbiblical). If the cross is not the very center of our gospel preaching, I fear we have fallen into grave error.

I just now noticed that you responded to my reply to your first comment–sorry I am so slow–my blogging is sort of like a roller coaster sometimes!

Anyway, I hope that you are right–that Osteen’s message is preparing people to hear the full gospel that you and I preach. That said, if what they are hearing from Osteen is not the full gospel, is it the gospel at all? Just a thought.

Secondly, I agree that many of the things Osteen says are encouraging to people in difficult times and no doubt he has helped countless people receive much needed encouragement. However, although Jesus often preached encouragement, he also wasn’t afraid to turn people away (i.e. the rich young ruler in Mark 10). He also wasn’t afraid to call people to account (think of his woes to the Pharisees and to the unrepentant cities). The sum of his message given in Mark 1:15 is “repent and believe for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” Certainly there is a balance here–we aren’t preaching the gospel the way it ought to be preached if we preach grace without preaching on sin/depravity or if we preach sin/depravity without boldy preaching on grace.

Osteen says that preaching the Bible isn’t his calling, that is fine–its not everyone’s calling (though we are all called to share the biblical gospel and make disciples), but if he isn’t going to preach the Bible, he should stop calling himself a pastor. Seriously, that is the #1 job of a pastor–to preach the Word! Being able to teach is the requirement that separates pastors/overseers from deacons in Titus and 1 Timothy.

As a young pastor, Paul gave Timothy this timely advice:

2 Timothy 4:1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

Forgive me if I am inappropriate regarding blogging since I am new to the concept. I am not sure if my comments will be offensive and I don’t intent them to be so.

I appreciate your commentaries and just wanted to point out that Joel Osteen is not an evangelical. He is better referred to as a neo-evangelical. His “slight-of-hand christianity” is far from the Gospel message that Paul, Timothy and other saints gave their lives to preserve. As Paul the apostle warned the Galatians we too must be aware of anyone who preaches “another gospel” (Gal 1:1-8) He warns that even if they are an angel and are changing he gospel message they are to be accursed.

In Gal.2:11ff, Paul confronts even Peter and Barnabas about not being “straightforward about the truth of the Gospel”. They had adjusted the gospel messaage to fit the the “party of the circumsized (the Jews) and were being hypocritical and Paul clearly points it out.

Unfortunately the media (Larry King included) lumps all contemporary protestant Christians into the same basket. I am continually trying to get people to note that today the evangelical world is shaded into a multi-colored spectrum. Which end of the scale you are on does make a difference.

Not everyone who walks a “sawdust” trail or stands at an altar or gives lip service to a prescribed prayer is saved. Salvation is seen not just heard and is evident by our conduct in life not a single event at the end of a service.

The Message (another modern translation of the Bible) explains that piece of Scripture (from Hebrews, regarding milk and infants) to mean this:

I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you’ve picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God’s ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong.

The Osteens are preaching a “filtered” gospel. The late preacher Adrian Rogers said this about false teaching of the Word of God:

It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error. It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals, than falsehood that comforts and then kills. Let me tell you something, friend, it is not love and it is not friendship if we fail to declare the whole counsel of God. It is better to be hated for telling the truth, than to be loved for telling a lie. It is impossible to find anyone in the Bible who was a power for God who did not have enemies and was not hated. It’s better to stand alone with the truth, than to be wrong with a multitude. It is better to ultimately succeed with the truth than to temporarily succeed with a lie. There is only one Gospel and Paul said, ‘If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.